Go pound sand: Indiana Supreme Court rules against Team Gahan v.v. the frivolous City County Building lawsuit.

The link: City of New Albany v. Board of Commissioners of the County of Floyd

Let's begin with excellent words suitable for you-know-who.

Pounding sand, Shane?

There are two takes on go pound sand. The more recent, seemingly a product of World War II, and often euphemised, is go pound sand up one's (rear end). It is used to dismiss and deride, and is ultimately a vehement way of saying: "go away"...A variant meaning is to suffer or to act in a pointless manner ... the late 19th century phrase "pound sand in a rathole" originated on campus and meant to be reasonably intelligent. It was usually found in the negative phrase, "not enough sense to pound sand in a rat hole."

Pounding sand used to be a good thing -- a sensible task undertaken by a person wise in the ways of rodent control -- until it became a bad thing -- a painful act of self-abasement -- and then morphed into a simple act of futility.

I'm obviously not an attorney, and the joy I'm deriving from this court decision derives from the stinging rebuke to Gahanism.

The lease expired in September 2008, and thereafter, the City and the County continued to occupy the Center, splitting the costs proportionally, based on the amount of space each occupied. In 2015, the County began negotiations with Building Authority for renovations of the Center. In 2018, the County requested that the Building Authority transfer title of the Center to the County pursuant to the Turn-Over Provision in the parties’ lease.

The Building Authority declined to transfer title and the County filed suit in April of 2018, seeking declaratory judgment and specific performance, among other things. At the county’s request, the trial court expedited the proceedings. In May 2018, the trial court granted the City of New Albany’s request to intervene. In June 2018, the trial court entered declaratory judgment in favor of the County, concluding that the Turn-Over Provision in the lease was valid pursuant to Indiana Code section 36-9-13-22(a)(6). It ordered that the title be given to the County and dismissed all other pending claims.

The City appealed arguing that under Indiana Code section 36-9-13, the Turn-Over Provision was not valid. The Court of Appeals agreed and Indiana Supreme Court | Case No. 19S-MI-674 | March 23, 2020 Page 4 of 7 further held, sua sponte, that the County, as a holdover tenant could still exercise the purchase option in the lease. City of New Albany v. Bd. of Comm’rs of Cty. of Floyd, 125 N.E.3d 636, 641 (Ind. Ct. App. 2019), adhered to on reh'g, 130 N.E.3d 660 (Ind. Ct. App. 2019), and trans. granted, opinion vacated, 138 N.E.3d 961 (Ind. 2019). Both parties petitioned for transfer, which we granted. Ind. Appellate Rule 58(A).

In short, the Indiana Supreme Court found in favor of the original trial court ruling, and all you really need to know is the defeat constitutes egg on Dear Leader's face.

Actually it isn't the only thing.

How much did this frivolous lawsuit cost city and county? Anyone for an on-line petition demanding the mayor pay court costs?

On Gahan's $10,000,000 City-County Building escape plan as a tactic to disrupt his ancestral enemies in county government.

On Gahan's $10,000,000 City-County Building escape plan as a tactic to disrupt his ancestral enemies in county government.

The middle medallion is the Building Authority.

The New Albany-Floyd County Building Authority might just be the least transparent governmental organization in Floyd County.

It's almost impossible to find any information about the NA-FC Building Authority, on-line or otherwise.

However, this description of the Indianapolis-Marion County Building Authority conveys a sense of the beast in question -- and the era 1959-1962 is a close match for the construction of our building, which was the first such composite office to open in the state.

The Building Authority is an independent municipal corporation whose purpose is to serve the needs of local government in acquiring, financing, constructing, and managing building projects of a substantial nature. The Indianapolis-Marion County Building Authority is an independent body corporate and politic organized under Chapter 54 of the Acts of the Indiana General Assembly for 1953, now cited as Indiana Code §36-9-13-1, et. seq.

In the early 1950’s, various civic and governmental leaders in Marion County determined that an independent municipal corporation was needed to finance and construct a new city-county building to replace the then-obsolete and deteriorating Marion County Court House and the old City Hall on Alabama Street. The new structure would house City and County government, the police department and the Marion County courts. Previous experience had indicated that an independent, professionally-managed entity would best serve the long-term needs of local government for a first-class government office building.

Utilizing the 1953 legislation, the then-Marion County Board of Commissioners, the Marion County Council and the Common Council of Indianapolis in joint action in May, 1953, organized the Indianapolis-Marion County Building Authority (“Building Authority”). The Building Authority has the statutory power to construct, acquire, finance, operate and maintain land and government buildings for the use of eligible government entities in Marion County.

The first project of the Building Authority was to finance and construct the City-County Building on the site of the old County Court House. Construction was started in 1959 and completed in 1962. The City-County Building, under the management of the Building Authority, has provided space for the joint use of the City and the County since 1962. All bonds issued by the Authority for the construction of the City-County Building have been repaid. There is no outstanding debt on the building.

Since the construction of the City-County Building, the Building Authority has built and/or managed many properties for the City of Indianapolis and Marion County. The Building Authority has maintained a non-political operation since its inception in 1953.

Lately the NA-FC Building Authority is back in the news.

Judge's ruling may pave way for Floyd County jail renovations, by Chris Morris (All Tom May, All of the Time)

NEW ALBANY — Special Judge Vicki Carmichael's ruling late Tuesday may have opened the door for the proposed renovation to the Floyd County Jail to move forward.

The New Albany-Floyd County Building Authority and City of New Albany disputed the agreement signed in 1992 calling for the county to receive ownership of the jail once bonding was paid off. But Carmichael ruled the lease giving Floyd County deed to the property was valid.

With the deed, Floyd County can now bond the jail renovation, which with soft costs will be around $15 million. The plan is to add 110 beds to the current facility along with other renovations. Instead of having to pay $10 million in construction costs up front with funds from hospital sale proceeds, the Floyd County Council can now finance the project for up to 20 years.

The majority of the council has been reluctant to move forward with the plan due to concerns over costs and what it will do to the county's cash flow. "Can the county afford the project," is the question most asked by council members. Floyd County is staring at a $4.9 million budget deficit in 2018. By a 4-3 vote, the council rejected a recent proposal to fund the renovations with hospital proceeds.

But one of those members who voted no, Denise Konkle, said she would be prepared to move forward with the plan now if it can be bonded.

"Absolutely. It definitely changes my ability to move forward," Konkle said after hearing of Carmichael's ruling. "Now we have the ability to bond and not put such a strain on the county's cash flow."

This situation may or may not be settled.

Observing the situation from afar, it seems obvious that the city has joined with the Building Authority in pushing back against Floyd County government in the matter of jail improvements, by feeding the following conditions into the whirling maw of the Jeff M. Gahan Random Chaos Generator and Campaign Finance Divining Rod.

• Maggie Ridge, Myron Huth, Victor Megenity and Steve Bonifer are the four current Building Authority board members. A fifth one recently quit.
• Bonifer is Jeff Gahan's brother-in law, and the father of our local Democratic Party's vice president.
• At the council meeting of June 21, municipal corporate attorney Shane Gibson twice mentioned the figure of $9,000,000 as the city's investment in the current jail, which dates from 1992.
• The county says no, this isn't correct, and it owns the jail outright because Indiana statute says so. 
• The jail is completely separate from the City-County Building.
• The New Albany Police Department shares space with the Sheriff's Department, and would be staying put if the city departs for the Reisz Elephant panacea.
• In a 40-year contract dating to 1959, which since 2001 apparently is "year by year," the city agrees to pay the Building Authority not exactly rent as such, but half the yearly expenses and upkeep for the City-County Building. Currently the city's share comes to around $190K per annum.   
• Gibson believes the county would be happy to use the vacated space, but at present the city won't negotiate with the county about anything.
• The city says it needs more space, but has not considered options like remodeling the space it has. 
• The county says the city owns half the building, and would continue to owe for half the yearly expenses and upkeep even if Gahan evacuates for a new city hall at Reisz.
• The city says no, but reiterates that it owns half the jail.  
• County replies no ... and so on. 

Then there's this one:

• At a time when Sheriff Frank Loop's proposal for jail improvements is being hashed out by Floyd County's commissioners and county council, former sheriff Darrell Mills (D) is staging an electoral comeback in November.

I've probably left a few points out, but the gist should be clear.

All these feints, jabs, maneuverings and lawsuits are politically-motivated delaying tactics. The chess board might look different in January, allowing Gahan an advantage in negotiations with incoming sheriff Mills for the NAPD's co-habitation arrangement.

It also appears that Team Gahan might be building a case, in effect, that City Hall would owe nothing toward the City-County Building upon fleeing to Reisz, but rather the county would owe the city a buyout for the city's share.

You know, maybe $9 million or so.

It's perfectly clear that one of Gahan's chief goals with the Reisz Elephant office transfer is to disrupt city-county relations, both as prelude to this year's county elections and next year's city elections, when a centerpiece of his re-election campaign will be to depict county government as the "enemy" and himself as the only one who can save the city from dastardly uni-gov.

Most ranking Democrats already have consumed copious amounts of this Kool-Aid. It's impossible to have a chat with a single one of them without perfidious county government entering the conversation.

I'll describe Gahan's corruption: "Well, Seabrook's worse." 

I'll explain the idiotic Reisz expenditure: "Well, the county's worse."

I'll suggest that negotiations are a good thing: "Not with county. I'd trust a North Korean first."

It's amazing.

Surely the 800-lb gorilla perched nearby is the City-County Building's future disposition. Insiders have told me to expect lawsuits, and I see no reason to doubt this; Gahan's theory of disruption might well result in considerable acrimony and expense.

Politics in any size of pond is about power, and power is money, and so I submit that we're seeing a similar strategy of disruption in New Albany, as directed by Gahan. He intends to disrupt county government, but also New Albany's city council.

It doesn't require a PhD to see that since taking office, Gahan has seized every available opportunity to sever ties with county government. That's because Democrats are toast in the county, and at best, capable only of rearguard actions. To preserve the party's municipal system of patronage and keep the money flowing, the city power base must be fortified and walled off.

Let's summarize.

Moving city hall to a renovated 19th-century warehouse is about Gahan's colossal ego, first and foremost.

Next comes Reisz's unique utility to disrupt county governance.

Dead last is historic preservation, about which Gahan cares not one jot -- but the backroom Reisz deal yields Dear Leader permanent control of David Barksdale, who hasn't even put up a fight about it. If you're a sincere historic preservationist, there's nothing in any of this for you apart from being manipulated, and when it's over, discarded.

Meanwhile, speaking of historic preservation, here's an interesting article about the origins of the City-County Building, from which this post's introductory photo is drawn.

All of these elements, including columns from the old courthouse, combined to create a building that was respected enough to be listed among Indiana’s best new building architecture in 1963 ... the courthouse is undoubtedly modern, but at 57 years old it’s actually eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Donald Trump would greatly appreciate the disruptiveness of Jeff Gahan's signature Reisz Elephant.

A white elephant is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is an object, building project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc., considered expensive but without use or value.
--- Wikipedia

Jeff Gahan's $10,000,000+ Reisz city hall proposal certainly addresses a messianic need to self-glorify in the lap of luxury, but far more importantly, it disrupts.

Since 2016, "disruption" is often used to describe Donald Trump's theory of governance. While feeding a steady diet of red meat to his core supporters, he seeks to overload the circuits toward a goal of disrupting "business (or politics) as usual," facilitating a renegotiation on his terms.

Politics in any size of pond is about power, and power is money, and so I submit that we're seeing a similar strategy of disruption in New Albany, as directed by Gahan. He intends to disrupt county government, but also New Albany's city council.

It doesn't require a PhD to see that since taking office, Gahan has seized every available opportunity to sever ties with county government. That's because Democrats are toast in the county, and at best, capable only of rearguard actions. To preserve the party's municipal system of patronage and keep the money flowing, the city power base must be fortified and walled off.

The best previous example of Gahan's instinct to secede came during his first term with an immediate (and wholly unannounced) move to split the joint parks department, inaugurating a spending spree and tripling the city's annual budgetary commitment to parks.

Of course, all those contractors and vendors donate to the mayor's campaign finance fund, don't they?

Now the time has arrived for Gahan to disrupt the arrangement by which city and county share an office building.

In due time (after I mow the damn lawn) the Green Mouse will be here to explain our theory that Gahan’s ultimate objective is to induce county government to indemnify the city to abandon its current home and move to the too-expensive-by-half Reisz Elephant.

Or, in more familiar terms: To preserve the Democratic governing clique's power, Gahan is building a wall -- and Mark Seabrook's going to pay for it.

Meanwhile, Gahan's disruption of city council became inevitable when 2018 dawned and Dan Coffey stood outside the tent, no longer under mayoral control. This meant that the potential of a Republican/Independent bloc had to be avoided immediately by detaching its weakest link, nominal Republican David Barksdale.

But Gahan's first steps toward council disruption came with the attempted kneecapping of council president Al Knable, a maneuver that seemingly failed. However, it's now clear that it was a feint, paving the way for the mayor to complete the process of isolating Barksdale from the potential opposing bloc.

As we speak, Barksdale's role in Reisz leaves him in danger of being drummed out of his chosen party. This helps Gahan municipal power consolidation, doesn't it?

We already know that Gahan's commitment to historic preservation exists only insofar as it increases his own city-versus-county power base, and by extension, as long as it bolsters his burgeoning campaign finance account. In short, Gahan doesn’t give a damn about old buildings -- and Barksdale is consumed by them. In effect, Gahan is tempting the alcoholic with a nice bottle of Kessler.

Situations like this always favor the ethics-free, self-interested cynic.

It's buildings over people, time and again, and people aren't the only entities capable of being held hostage. Last Thursday, corporate attorney Shane Gibson confirmed that we've arrived at a purely intentional ultimatum: either Reisz is rehabbed as the mayor prefers, or he'll be sure it is demolished without further discussion.

Not only has Barksdale facilitated his own captivity; now he's in Stockholm Syndrome territory.

Stockholm syndrome is a condition that causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity.

Concurrently and unfortunately, by embracing a position of supine obedience to Dear Leader, Barksdale and other local historic preservationists are squandering their future credibility by allowing foundational principles to be merrily co-opted by the prerequisites of Gahan's squalid, grubby political sewer.

To conclude, our elders were astute.

When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

THIS JUST IN: ‘We Are New Albany,’ a campaign to save the homes of more than 1,700 New Albany residents from planned demolition, will publicly launch on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. at the City-County Building.

I believe the release speaks for itself. See you on Thursday. 

Feel free to copy the text below and redistribute any way you please.

---

Press Conference: ‘We Are New Albany’ Campaign to Call on Mayor Gahan: “No Demolition Without A Plan to Replace”

New Albany residents to launch campaign to save public housing from demolition

New Albany, IN ­ – ‘We Are New Albany,’ a campaign to save the homes of more than 1,700 New Albany residents from planned demolition, will publicly launch with a press conference at 4PM on Thursday, November 16 at the pillars/steps on the NE corner of the City-County Building in downtown New Albany.

“I was born and raised in New Albany, bouncing around house to house because of unaffordable rents” says ‘We Are New Albany’ campaign Deputy Chair Brandon Brown, a resident of one of the properties slated for demolition. “I will not let the homes in my neighborhood be demolished, forcing children into the insecurity I struggled with at their age. Mayor Gahan, we call on you not to demolish a single unit without a plan to replace it.”

‘We Are New Albany’ is a campaign of Hoosier Action, a community organization building the power of Southern Indiana’s working families. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.hoosieraction.org/ wearenewalbany. Hoosier Action’s official statement of values, “Building The Indiana We Deserve,” can be read online at www.hoosieraction.org/what-we- do/. For more on Hoosier Action, see our press coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere at www.hoosieraction.org/press.

Who: The ‘We Are New Albany’ campaign: public housing residents, faith leaders, New Albany tenants, local business leaders, community allies

Where: By the Pillars/Steps, NE corner of the City-County Building, downtown New Albany. Live stream will be available.

When: Thursday, November 16th, 4PM-4:30PM

Visuals: Residents, faith leaders, and business and community allies in front of City-County Building, “We Are New Albany” banner

(Press Contact: Jesse Myerson, 914-582-3938, outreach@hoosieraction.org)

It's Street Art Belgium, though perhaps the concept is untranslatable into New Albanian.

The project is called Street Art Belgium: Making Belgium Beautiful One Piece at a Time, but if you speak neither Flemish nor French, I'm here to translate the concept into New Albanian.

Of course, we'll never see it in New Albany, where the Dear Leader view are somewhat more conventionally:

Anyone priced spray paint lately?

Daddy, why are those firemen up there on the City-County Building roof?

Well, son, they're just cutting holes in the roof to help ventilate hot gases and smoke.

Let's hope they're done in time for the oaf of office ceremony today. Thanks to MC for the gag.

Grab all your saws, 'cuz the NAFD is training on the roof.

Unimaginative is, as unimaginative is, as unimaginative is ... you are now sworn into office ... unimaginat ...

This week we're being told that the Coyle property is back off the table as it pertains to a future city-county government center.

Next week, the might wheel of unimaginative non-communication will be given a mighty heave, the press will be breathlessly summoned, and mass yawning attacks will break out in all corners of the Open Air Museum.

Meanwhile, I have a vision of the following TV report flickering onto the tube, and higher-ranking local elected officials glaring at it numbly for as many as four seconds before savagely fingering the remote control to "does not compute": Project Green: Is "old" the new "green"?

Yeah, I know; NA-FC, where ideas go to die and be murdered, and all that (weary sigh of disgust).

Prime governmental real estate, and cutting the commute time to good beer, too.

This one's been simmering for a while, and it makes abundant sense -- meaning it will be opposed by the obstructionists if they can be torn away from their ongoing campaigns in opposition to flush toilets.

New Albany, Floyd officials may use Coyle site for offices, by Grace Schneider (Courier-Journal).

New Albany and Floyd County leaders have opened negotiations to buy the Coyle auto dealership property downtown for a city-county government complex.

The city and county intend to order an appraisal and an environmental assessment of the 3.66 acres on Spring Street and will decide in the next three months whether to pursue the purchase, New Albany Deputy Mayor Carl Malysz said yesterday.

Here's the part that caught my attention:

The Coyle property, between East Fourth and East Sixth streets, bounded by East Spring and East Elm, is zoned for commercial use. It also offers plenty of land to construct the 60,000-square-foot building the city and county would share and provide parking space, (Mayor Doug) England said.

Looks to me like the ideal opportunity to reuse the existing older main building in conjunction with a new design.

Why not use the buildings already there?

In Thursday’s edition of the Tribune, county commissioner Steve Bush ruminated on the $5.8 million appraisal of the Grant Line Road property that includes the downtrodden but nonetheless historic building that houses the county’s Youth Shelter.

His conclusion? Use the predominantly green property to build a new City County Building nearer to the Interstate.

Why? Because to do so would represent a future-oriented perspective.

Of course, comic relief was provided by county council kingpin Larry McAllister, who noted the absence of money, the hopelessness of the situation, and the dearth of any ideas on his part to remedy the situation.

Presumably these admissions of political impotence are designed to guarantee his re-election by way of assuring constituents that he'll work to keep them poor.

In today’s Courier-Journal, it is revealed that Clarksville’s town government has approached the owners of the recently vacated Value City on Eastern Boulevard with a mind toward flipping the town hall currently located off Veterans Parkway and redeveloping the shopping center area and its acres of unused concrete for use as the new town hall.

Granted, the situations aren’t entirely analogous; Veterans Parkway is an exurban blemish, but Clarksville has a more valuable hand to play as a result.

At the same time, with downtown New Albany properties available for adaptive reuse (even the old M. Fine factory building makes sense in this context), is abandoning the city center for increasingly rare suburban green space really a future-oriented perspective?